TV Commercial:

Description:

What this commercial says:

Why choose more? Because more isn’t just more channels, more choices, more technology. More is new connections, new ideas, new worlds of experience you never knew existed. More is an 8 year old girl finding a documentary on butterflies and unleashing millions of them in her classroom. It’s a mother of 3 discovering her need for speed or your brother in law actually saying something interesting.

More isn’t just bandwidth, gigabytes and pixels, it’s discovery is more to you, than you even know, and it’s why we invested 2 billion dollars in our superior fiber rich network to bring you more of what’s now and what’s next.

The primary claim made about Charter.com’s service or product:

What some people might think that means: Charter has the best network for internet, TV or phone, because it’s a “fiber [optic] network” instead of old fashioned copper wires

What it really means: The commercial says that Charter has a “fiber rich” network, not “a fiber network”. In this context “rich” means plentiful or abundant and does not mean that Charter.com has a 100% fiber optic network. This would lead us to conclude that plenty of old fashioned copper wires and cable remains in Charter’s “fiber rich” network. Of particular note is that most homes using Charter service still have old fashioned copper coax cable coming into the house.

Summary:

This commercial uses little deceptive wording but many people may be fooled into thinking that Charter has a 100% fiber optic network, which does not appear to be the case.

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2 comments

Jim Ray / November 21, 2013

I had Charter a long time ago, switched to AT&T’s U-Verse, and just switched back to Charter. A few years ago, the public perception was that Charter had outdated infrastructure and was behind the technology curve. Now, they tout (correctly) that their internet offering is superior to AT&T’s. My U-Verse came with 8Mbps and I paid extra for 12, then even more for 18. My Charter was sold as 30, but when I test it, it’s often in the 40s. The point of the ad is, Charter is committed to bringing customers like me the best product possible. (Just to show that I’m not a Charter shill, the AT&T video product was more refined, with better set-top boxes, on-screen guide, and DVR flexibility.) Overall, I’m glad I’m back. (Jim Ray – Madison, WI)

I don’t find their advertising to be misleading at all, but then, I am very tech-savvy. The first time I heard them say “fiber-rich”, I knew it meant that in bigger cities they are probably using more fiber than cable, but for semi-rural areas like my own as well as smaller metro areas, coax cable still rules. Nonetheless, I have had AT&T U-verse @ 12Mbps down for almost a year, and there have been inexplicable outages ranging from 30 minutes to 14 hours, and AT&T’s tech support is far less than forthcoming with answers (literally; I’ve waited on the phone for as long as 84 minutes). I’m going with Charter after my upcoming move, and U-verse will be history.